George Martin Tag Page

LIVE CHAT: THE 2008 ACADEMY AWARDS

We missed our chance to do WestminsterDogShowFreak, so instead we launched OscarFreak, dedicated to the Academy Awards, which trails only the Super Bowl as an ad showcase. On Sunday, we hosted a live chat to critique the Oscar-night ads.  See bios of the participants here. Here is the full transcript: 8:00 p.m. ET Barbara Lippert: reege is just slightly better on the red carpet than star jones Bob Moore: WAY CUTER. Rob Schwartz: The "dread" carpet. Bob Moore: sorry for the upper ca

---

51st Annual Grammy Nominations, comedy-related

For the 51st annual Grammy Awards, the Recording Academy went with a live, primetime announcement/mini-concert. But you want to know who got nominated, don't you? While putting American Idol's star judge Simon Cowell up for Record of the Year (he produced "Bleeding Love" for Leona Lewis along with Clive Davis and Ryan "Alias" Tedder) certainly contains some comedic value because you wonder if he'll show up in a tight black V-neck or a tight black tuxedo, we do have some other actual comedy hono

---

History Unfolds

Have you voted in the photo contest? Four of our trip pictures have been entered in a photo contest run by the good folks at easycar.com. Oh happy day - all four photos are currently in the top 10 out of 344 photos. You can vote for each by clicking here, (remember 10 is a good vote! *smile*)  here, here, and here. Yes, you CAN vote for all four photos. You can only vote once from any given IP address - this means you can vote once for EACH pic from bothat ome and at work! If you have two

---

Governors at first sight

By JONATHAN MARTIN & BEN SMITH | No one could remember a meeting quite like this. President-elect Barack Obama met with the nation’s governors Tuesday to hear their tales of economic pain – and won some points by telling Republicans in the room that he welcomed disagreements, “so feel free,” one participant recalled. “He said, 'I don't know you as well, let me get to know you, give me a chance, you might be surprised how helpful I can be,’ ” said New York Gov. David Paterson, a Democra

---

Wiki Wednesday

Time to learn something! 1. Go to Wikipedia. 2. Click on "Random article" in the left-hand sidebar box. 3. Post it! Here's what I got: Adversane is a hamlet in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England, located 1.5 miles south of Billingshurst. It consists of a cluster of houses and a public house (the Blacksmith's Arms) at a crossroads on the A29 road, on the Roman road named Stane Street. The hamlet was known as Hadfoldshern until the 1850s. The Blacksmith's Arms stands beside the site o

---

Civil Rights Movement inspires Blacks abroad

George E. Curry, Chicago Defender - A trip from Gatwick Airport to London’s central city is visible confirmation that national entities are no longer restricted to imaginary geographical boundaries. But the leading U.S. import for Blacks living in the United Kingdom is the modern Civil Rights Movement. That was made clear repeatedly recently as an American delegation accompanied Jesse Jackson to London, Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham and Liverpool. Everywhere he went in the U.K., the civi

---

What the Georgia Win Really Means

By Andrea Tantaros Republican Political Commentator/Foxnews.com Contributor After gobs of money, a barrage of advertising and even an appearance by rapper Ludacris, we finally have an outcome in the Georgia circus (aka: special election) and it’s good news for Republicans. Incumbent Saxby Chambliss defeated his opponent, Jim Martin by a large margin (58 percent to 42 percent). Sure, the massive amounts of cash the Republicans channeled south of the Mason-Dixon line helped, and the idea of a

---

Wednesday Items

Georgia: First and foremost, I want to commend Jim Martin for running a strong campaign in deep red Georgia. Anyone analyzing the Georgia Senate race should not lose sight of the fact that Georgia is arguably the most Republican-shifting state in the entire country over the last decade. Steve Benen lays it out well: Republicans needed a runoff to keep a Senate seat they expected to win easily, in a reliably "red" state, and it's evidence of a party with the wind at its back. Of course it is.

---

Chambliss Credits Palin for His Runoff Win

On Fox News this morning Sen. Saxby Chambliss went out of his way to credit Sarah Palin for helping to put him over the top in his runoff against Jim Martin. We can now count Chambliss and in the bag for Palin and her Overhyped Express bid for president in 2012. Chambliss said of Palin, “I can't overstate the impact she had down here. When she walks in a room, folks just explode, and they really did pack the house everywhere we went. She's a dynamic lady, a great administrator, and I think she

---

Bookish

I don’t remember if feeling so definitively wintry so early in the season in a long time. We had 3-4 inches of snow earlier this week, enough to take our first runs down the sledding hill yesterday. I walked up the street to the hill with AJ and The Boy Across the Street and stood at the top watching them go down and watching the sun set. The sledding hill is one of the best places for sunset viewing. You can see over the trees toward the horizon as it turns pink. You can see the moon rise

---

SAXBY WINS, CHAPTER 2

Marc Ambinder: “Habitual voters tend to vote in special elections; in Georgia, there are more Republican habitual voters than Democratic habitual voters; the minds of Republican habitual voters were no doubt focused on Chambliss’s sudden cameo as the bullwark against an overweening Democratic majority. But these habitual voters are an ideologically charged subset of the electorate. On November 4, 3.7 million Georgians voted. Yesterday, about 2.1 million Georgians did. Barack Obama pulled

---

Bush — Herbert Hoover Reincarnate

December 3, 2008 Barack Obama, George W Bush, History, News, Politics, The Economy, Wordpress Political Blogs | Tags: Barack Obama, George W Bush, History, Politics, The Economy, Wordpress Political Blogs |   Read Harold Meyerson’s instructive op-ed from today’s Washington Post.  I’ve pasted it here in its entirety. Bush’s Final Fiasco By Harold Meyerson Wednesday, December 3, 2008; A17 As he prepares to move back to Texas, our 43rd president is the beneficiary of Bush fatigue. The nati

---

Presidential Dollar Stats: Martin Van Buren $1 Coins Mark Low

Minting of Presidential $1 Coins have hit a new low, according to the latest production figures by the United States Mint. The series, which started in 2007 with over 340,000 George Washington Presidential coins, has experienced a production decline with each succeeding $1 release, with the exception of the Jackson dollar. Van Buren production is down by more than one-third compared to Washington dollar figures, as the following table reveals. (...) Read the rest of Presidential Dollar St

---

Royal Profile: Sir George Pinker

A member of a family that can trace their history back to the Norman Conquest, he was possessed with a fine baritone voice. When he turned down a contract with the D'Oyle Carte Company to pursue a medical career, little did he know that in the process he would modernize the delivery of royal babies.George Douglas Pinker was born on December 6th, 1924 in Calcutta, India, the second son of Queenie Elizabeth née Dix and Ronald Douglas Pinker, a horticulturist who worked for Sutton's Seeds for 40 ye

---

Best & Worst Of 2008: Leftover Turkeys Of The Year

Yeah, most publications published their “Turkeys of the Year” during Thanksgiving week. We’ve never been one to go against the grain, so we’re doing it in conjunction with the rest of our Best & Worst of 2008. Anyway, most of the folks and events that we designate below aren’t really “Turkeys.” Turkeys, when handled properly, are plump, juicy, and well seasoned. These folks and events don’t qualify. They’re more like leftover turkey that has been sitting out for a while: greasy, tough, tas

---

The Early Bird: December 3, 2008

Auto Giants Plea For Congressional Aid Seeking mercy before Congress, executives from the Big Three automakers requested substantially more in loans yesterday than the $25 billion they had initially hoped to get two weeks ago. They also warned that assistance was needed immediately to survive the next year, thanks to tight credit conditions and the lowest car sales in a quarter century. In return, the companies promised to slash costs, restructure their budgets, and increase production o

---

[Blogs] Credit Crunch - A (white) Man's World

Think of the main British players (decision makers, analysts, media commentators etc.) on how to deal with the effects of the credit crunch: Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling, Mervyn King, David Blanchflower, Vince Cable, George Osborne, Ken Clarke, Robert Peston, Evan Davis, Martin Woolf, Will Hutton, Larry Elliot... It's hardly a list notable for its diversity is it? Whilst there are a few notable exceptions (including Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Yvette Cooper), it is generalyy the case th

---

Jon Stewart, Oh No, Not More Sarah Palin in Georgia

Jon Stewart, Oh No, Not More Sarah Palin in Georgia The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c Indecision 2008 - Chambliss vs. Martin Barack Obama Interview John McCain Interview Sarah Palin Video Funny Election Video That Saxby Chambliss won this runoff election by almost 20 points is no surprise at all. It is Georgia after all. Though only 20% of the voters participated, down from 65% on November 4th, it was an easy guess as to who would be turning out. The only surprise to me

---

Palin Power: There’s No Denying It

Palin Power: There’s No Denying It Posted by Adam Graham in : Sarah Palin , add a comment Before the runoff election, there were several statements from bloggers indicating a victory by Saxby Chambliss would be a victory for Sarah Palin. Wrote John Hawkins of Right Wing News: Tomorrow, Saxby Chambliss has his run-off election with Jim Martin and given that it’s a close race and holding on to his seat is incredibly important, he could have just about any Republican he wants on the campaign tr

---

Palin Power: No Denying It

Before the runoff election, there were several statements from bloggers indicating a victory by Saxby Chambliss would be a victory for Sarah Palin. Wrote John Hawkins of Right Wing News: Tomorrow, Saxby Chambliss has his run-off election with Jim Martin and given that it’s a close race and holding on to his seat is incredibly important, he could have just about any Republican he wants on the campaign trail for him today. He could have John McCain, Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Bush, Mitt Romne

---